Hi Morgy,
Good questions, I shall attempt to answer in my most foolish and rock-laden conspiratorial prose.
With increasing globalization (which is, in reality, an increasing concentration of control of the planet's monetary function and productive capacity) an individual nation's trade deficit has become increasingly irrelevant. One nation's deficit becomes one or several nations' surplus although on a national basis a large accumulated trade deficit does represent an obligation that truly will someday be repaid, one way or another. If a dozen money center banks and a few dozen multinational corporations hold positions on both sides within the transaction pool, the net effect of trade imbalances is approximately zero to them, the real players in all this.
The overriding goal is not to balance trade but to expand trade, whether such expansion makes any economically sustainable sense to a given nation or not. And expansion of trade is not an end unto itself, but rather a means of achieving further monetary expansion and global control. For without continuous monetary expansion, what passes for the current monetary regime cannot be sustained. And if the system is not sustained, it ceases to be possible to increasingly centrally control and direct the nations and peoples of the world via encumbrance of their assets, their current and future production, and their very self-determination.
A nation does not devalue because it wants to, it devalues because, in order to meet ever-increasing obligations to its globalist masters, it has to. A race to the bottom is underway, forcing each nation to sacrifice its sovereignty at the altar of elite-dominated globalization in return for "credits" in a de facto single global fiat monetary system that the nations themselves do not comprehend and cannot control. And when loans start to go bad, new loans are issued simply to keep existing loans current so that the game may continue on its merry way for a few more months.
I agree, an implosion, very likely a world-wide implosion, is coming. Both the natural and artificial limits of expansion will have been reached, the ability to the sustain the limit of expansion will have been exhausted, and the entire shoddy artifice will come tumbling down. Unfortunately, the true reason for this collapse will not be apparent to many. As usual, the excuse will be a war, a madman, an act of God, or some other seemingly relevant event, but the true cause will be the mere instability of the global monetary structure. I'm guessing Y2k will act as both trigger event and scapegoat in this regard. But if not Y2k, it will be something else, something less out of the ordinary, that yanks the plug.
The whole Earth is becoming one big plantation. The institutions of the global elite are the taskmasters, their co-opted governments the whip, and the multinational corporations the company store. The free market is a lie and the sovereignty of both individual and nation may be on the very edge of extinction.
''The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless...From the conclusion of this [American Revolutionary] war we shall be going down hill. It will not be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will be heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.'' --Thomas Jefferson |
